


To Cleanse a Soul

by nothingeverlost



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-12
Updated: 2014-08-12
Packaged: 2018-02-12 20:28:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2123589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nothingeverlost/pseuds/nothingeverlost
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>From the prompt "Belle is pregnant, the child isn't his."</p>
            </blockquote>





	To Cleanse a Soul

They had been in love once. He remembers a perfect summer, an autumn filled with long walks and leaves crunching under their feet, her laugh as a snowball hits him in the chest.

He remembers reading of her wedding in the paper one spring morning when the sun was too bright.

He broke the teacup he’d been drinking from, and then the entire cup. All except one, and that had been saved as a memory. And a promise. He would never love again.  
Storybrooke is a small town, but he can go months without seeing her. When he does his eyes grow cold as he looks right through her. She doesn’t even deserve his rage. Or her pity. There’s rumors, and he sees a bruise on her cheek bone for himself once, but he doesn’t care. She had made her choice. He owes her nothing.

It’s three years before he runs into her at Granny’s and sees the hand resting on her swollen belly. No one, it seemed, had dared to tell him that Alaine Frollo was expecting.

"When you find you’re not cut out to be a mother I’m certain I can find someone for the poor child who will love them." They’d talked of children once, and her desire to be a mother. It was the cruelest thing he’d ever said to her. She only lowered her head and turned, running as fast as she could to the bathroom.

A victory.

Mrs. Lucas scowls, but doesn’t dare to say a word. Her rent is due in three days and she doesn’t dare speak up against him. The people on town whisper that he’s a monster and the reputation is well earned. he can raise rents on a whim, and those that don’t pay find themselves on the street.

He smiles when he goes to collect the rent. It’s good for people to remember what they owe him, and the power he holds over them. it puts him in a good mood, though a curious one when he sees the stranger standing in the entry.

"Swan. Emma Swan."

"What a lovely name." He chokes on the words. The weight of centuries crashes down on his bones. He had thought himself dust once, but now he understood how little he really was.

_He locked her in a tower and sent in clerics to cleanse her soul._

Clerics.

His Belle, bruises on her skin and a babe in her belly, married to Claude Frollo.

Because of him.

_She died._

But she hadn’t. 

It’s something worse.


End file.
